Short Summary

In Lebanon, Israeli and Christian forces shelled the southern port city of Tyre on Wednesday night (1 August).

Description

In Lebanon, Israeli and Christian forces shelled the southern port city of Tyre on Wednesday night (1 August). One man was slightly injured during the attack and an undetermined amount of damage was caused to the already crippled city. And in Beirut, fighting between Christians and Moslems is escalating. On Monday (30 July), a worker at the Beirut docks was killed by sniper fire, and that lead to a total shutdown of harbour facilities in the Lebanese capital.

SYNOPSIS: Reporter from Beirut say that the death of the port worker sparked the renewed fighting. Syrian troops and right-wing Christian militiamen battled each other with mortar and armour piercing rockets. Witnesses said that automatic weapon fire could still be heard in the city well after the men battle had ended.

The harbour workers' union called the strike in protest after a dock worker was killed by sniper fire. The port area, where the man was killed, is near to one of Beirut's main combat zones. The district is also one of the major commercial areas of the city and the fighting that continually rocks the area has turned it into a virtual no-man's land.

There have also been eighteen major air, naval and artillery attacks carried out by the Israelis in southern Lebanon during July. Reports say nearly fifty people have died and more than a hundred others have been wounded during the raids. But one of the most severe casualties of the four year civil war has been the port of Beirut. Since the start of the war, traffic entering the poet has declined steadily. About three thousand ships a year used to call at Beirut -- now the annual figures are just a fractions of that.